Eating People is Wrong (36 page)

A bell rang and it was time for her to go. ‘Take care of yourself,’ said Treece. ‘Don’t
you
get in here; I’m running out of patience.’

‘It’s like Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony in reverse,’ said Emma, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief.

‘Come again,’ said Treece.

‘Very well,’ said Emma.

‘I feel guilty about him too,’ said Treece. ‘Guilty’s all you can feel. I suppose all you can say for us is, at least we can feel guilty.’

She went away and he lay there in his bed, and felt as though this would be his condition for evermore, and that from this he would never, never escape.

EATING PEOPLE IS WRONG

M
ALCOLM
B
RADBURY
is a well-known novelist, critic and academic. He set up the famous creative writing department of the
University of East Anglia, whose students have included Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro. He is the author of seven novels:
Eating People is Wrong
(1959);
Stepping Westward
(1965);
The History Man
(1975), which won the Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize;
Rates of Exchange
(1983), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize;
Cuts
(1987);
Doctor
Criminale
(1992); and
To the Hermitage
(2000). He has also written several works of non-fiction, humour and satire, including
Who Do You Think You Are?
(1976),
All Dressed Up
and Nowhere to Go
(1982) and
Why Come to Slaka?
(1992). He is an active journalist and a leading television writer, responsible for
Porterhouse Blue
(Channel Four),
Cold
Comfort Farm
(BBC TV), many TV plays and episodes of
Inspector Morse
,
A Touch of Frost
,
Kavanagh QC
and
Dalziel and Pascoe
. He lives in Norwich, travels a good deal,
and was awarded a knighthood in the year 2000.

Also by Malcolm Bradbury in Picador

Stepping Westward

The History Man

Rates of Exchange

Cuts

Doctor Criminale

To the Hermitage

Who Do You Think You Are?

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

Why Come to Slaka?

With acknowledgements to
Michael Flanders and Donald Swann,
originators of the song
The Reluctant Cannibal
from which the title of this novel

is taken.

First published 1959 by Secker & Warburg

This edition published 2000 by Picador

This electronic edition published 2012 by Picador
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com

ISBN 978-1-447-20560-9 EPUB

Copyright © Malcolm Bradbury 1959

The right of Malcolm Bradbury to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital,
optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be
liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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